Marin IJ Editorial: Bus ridership drop should raise questions

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Golden Gate Bridge district officials are speculating on why its transit district has seen a sharp drop in bus riders. In just one year — and despite a bustling local economy — bus ridership dropped 10.7 percent.

At the same time, the transit district has raised its fares, almost yearly, although recently it held off on its planned increase for longer-distance riders.

Still, the rising cost of riding the bus may be contributing to the downturn in ridership.

So have the district’s recent problems with cancelled routes and route changes that make transit more inconvenient for some riders.

The district also points at a growth in Marin workers being able to work from their homes, even occasionally, as a contributing factor. Being able to work from home has become a growing factor in recruiting, especially in the Bay Area market.

Public transit needs to be affordable, convenient and dependable to be effective.

District leaders need to regularly test their transit services on each of these areas.

When it comes to convenience, the district may want to look at AC Transit’s Flex service, a pilot program being offered in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, where smaller buses are being used to provide riders with more direct service.

The service allows passengers to book their rides in advance, allowing Flex buses to schedule more direct curb-to-curb service, instead of bus stop to bus stop service that larger buses offer.

AC Transit reports that the shuttle-like service allows it to provide riders with more frequent, more convenient service, reducing the time it takes to wait for regular buses.

The schedule is shaped to riders’ schedules rather than riders having to build their schedules around the buses.

It is AC Transit’s answer to competition from Uber and Lyft.

Similar services, all conveniently linked to phone apps, have been launched in Santa Clara and San Mateo.

It might be a model that could work for Golden Gate as well — if not alone, in partnership with Marin Transit, which focuses on local routes rather than those between Marin and Sonoma counties or across the bridge.

A 10.7 percent drop, especially at this time, should be cause for the district to explore possible reasons and respond to them. It might take alternatives to the long-standing model.

The possible success of other Bay Area transit agencies’ model could be an answer to Golden Gate’s and their riders’ problems.

The combination of rising fares, declining ridership and increased personnel costs is not a promising equation for the financial health of the bridge district and the effectiveness of public transit.